Business

Apple's Market Cap Drops Below $400 Billion

Apple's market cap dipped below $400 billion in early trading Monday for the first time in more than a year.

The company's stock declined by more than 1% Monday morning following a court ruling late Friday that cut Apple's $1 billion victory against Samsung for patent infringement nearly in half. The stock continued to drop even as shipping times finally improved for the iMac — suggesting improved supply — and a Bloomberg report that Apple could release a smart watch by the end of this year.

Apple's stock has been on the decline in recent months due to investor concerns about the company's dwindling profit margin from new products and uncertainty about innovative products in the pipeline.

The company's market cap first passed $400 billion in January, 2012 and eventually rose to more than $650 billion in September on the hype for the iPhone 5 release. Since then, however, the stock and market cap have gradually given up all those gains. Now, rather than become the world's first trillion-dollar company, Apple is struggling just get back to the right side of $500 billion.

Apple CEO Tim Cook recently tried to reassure investors that he is also frustrated with the declining stock price and the company is "obviously" looking at "new categories" for products, though he wouldn't say which or when.

Even with the recent declines, Apple is still well ahead of Google, which has a market cap of around $270 billion, and Microsoft, which has a market cap of just more than $230 billion.

As of publication, Apple was hovering right around the $400 billion mark.

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